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Sennheiser Electronics Corporation e 914

Cardioid Pencil Condenser Microphone

The Sennheiser e 914 is an electret pencil condenser with a fixed Cardioid polar pattern.

Two recessed 3-way rotary switches on the mic body allow selection of pad and filter options. Attenuation is switchable between 0dB -10dB, and -20dB. Two high-pass filters are available: -6dB/octave at 130Hz, or -18dB/octave at 85Hz, are available to compensate for proximity effect. In the “flat” position, the mic’s published frequency graph is flat to 40Hz.

The mic’s self-noise is moderately high at 19dBA. Its Cardioid pattern control below 2kHz is excellent; above 4kHz, the mic’s sensitivity narrows.

The published frequency response shows a flat line from 40Hz to 3kHz, with two moderate high-frequency presence peaks: +2.5dB at 6800Hz, and +5dB at 12kHz.

The mic has a detachable cardioid capsule, suggesting that Sennheiser might release alternative capsules to provide a selection of pickup patterns. To date (late 2009) no such capsules have been announced.

MIX describes the capsule as a KE14, with a diametmer of 14mm and a 3.5-micron diaphragm.

The e914 ships with a mic clip (p/n MZQ 800), a foam windscreen (MZW 64), and a storage pouch.

Mix, 2005I tried the e914 on an acoustic guitar with great results. I could move in close and, to get rid of most of the proximity effect, use one of the filter settings for a very present, in-your-face percussive sound or move back out for a smoother overall acoustic body sound heard on many country ballads. Either way, the high frequencies were smooth with the overall spectral balance even.